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Salyut 4



         


Salyut 4
Mission Insignia
Mission Statistics
Mission Name:Salyut 4
Call Sign:Salyut 4
Launch:December 26, 1974
04:15:00 UTC
Baikonur,
U.S.S.R
Reentry:February 3, 1977
Crews:2
Occupied:92 days
In Orbit:770 days
Number of
Orbits:
12,444
Apogee:168 mi (270 km)
Perigee:136 mi (219 km)
Period:89.1 min
Inclination51.6 deg
Distance
Traveled:
~313,651,190 mi
(~504,772,660 km)
Orbital Mass:18,500 kg
Salyut 4


Salyut 4 (DOS 4) was a Salyut space station launched on December 26, 1974 into an orbit with an apogee of 355 km, a perigee of 343 km and an orbital inclination of 51.6 degrees. It was essentially a copy of the DOS 3, and unlike its ill-fated sibling it was a complete success. Three crews attempted to make stays aboard Salyut 4 (Soyuz 17 and Soyuz 18 docked; Soyuz 18a suffered a launch abort. The second stay was for 63 days duration, and an unmanned Soyuz capsule remained docked to the station for three months, proving the systems' long-term durability. Salyut 4 was deorbited February 3, 1977.

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Visiting spacecraft and crews


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Instrumentation

The Salyut 4 X-ray instrument, often called the Filin telescope, consisted of four gas flow proportional counters, three of which had a total detection surface of 450 cm² in the energy range 2-10 keV, and one of which had an effective surface of 37 cm² for the range 0.2 to 2 keV (32 to 320 aJ). The field of view was limited by a slit collimator to 3° × 10° FWHM. The instrumentation also included optical sensors which were mounted on the outside of the station together with the X-ray detectors, and power supply and measurement units which were inside the station. Ground based calibration of the detectors was considered along with in-flight operation in three modes: inertial orientation, orbital orientation, and survey. Data could be collected in 4 energy channels: 2 to 3.1 keV (320 to 497 aJ), 3.1 to 5.9 keV (497 to 945 aJ), 5.9 to 9.6 keV (945 to 1,538 aJ), and 2 to 9.6 keV (320 to 1,538 aJ) in the larger detectors. The smaller detector had discriminator levels set at 0.2 keV (32 aJ), 0.55 keV (88 aJ), and 0.95 keV (152 aJ).

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Science

Among others, observations of Sco X-1, Cir X-1, Cyg X-1, and A0620-00 were published from the Filin data. A highly variable low energy of 0.6 to 0.9 keV (96 to 144 aJ) flux was detected in Sco X-1. Cir X-1 was not detected at all during a July 5 1975 observation, providing an upper limit on the emission of 3.5e-11 erg.cm-2s-1 (35 fW/m²) in the 0.2 to 2.0 keV (32 to 320 aJ) range. Cyg X-1 was observed on several occasions. Highly variable flux, in both the time and energy domains, was observed.

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References




Previous Mission:
Salyut 3
Salyut program Next Mission:
Salyut 5






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